Headphone Testing Album Makes Debut

David Chesky of Chesky Records and HDTracks.com has teamed with Jude Mansilla, founder of Head-Fi.org, to come up with a testing album for headphone users. The album, “Head-Fi/HDtracks Open Your Ears Sampler,” is a collection of carefully selected songs meant to test such things as midrange tonality, transparency, dept, bass extension and center focus, among other things.

Head-Fi.org features heavy participation by its community of headphone aficionados, as well as involvement by several audio manufacturers, including Shure, Logitech and Monster. The album, while not intended to be the de facto standard for headphone testing, was meant to give the community “a common starting point,” Mansilla said in a phone interview.

The album, which Mansilla said has already sold several hundred copies despite its almost non-existent advertising, is available for purchase on HDTracks.com.